Ukraine

Not only Western weapons but cheap drones. People from all over Europe are sending their drones to Ukraine and being used for artillery spotting. Today, an officer said they had lost five, but at a cost to Russia of several mortars, a tank and about 100 men. Amazon is selling a drone with a 1080P HD Camera and a 30-minute flight time for £90.

 

The vast majority of them no doubt. The problem is not that Russian people are naturally hostile, it's that they are brainwashed. They believe Russia is being threatened and the 'special military operation' is about liberation for Ukraine directly, and Russia indirectly by countering a threat. This is why for the most part the Ukrainians have not fired into Russia even when they could. They are counting on the ordinary Russian people putting two and two together and realising this 'threat' is making no effort to harm Russians.

I saw mention of the old infamous button. I don't think I'd worry too much about that. Even a mad man knows that would be suicide.

The sad part of all this, apart from the obvious tragic loss of lives, is that until recently, much of the world, including Russia's chosen enemies, not only traded with Russia but collaborated on all sorts including science projects. Imagine how awkward it must have been on the ISS, with the people looking at their Russian colleague and secretly thinking, your nation just invaded a neighbour, while the Russian looks at the American and secretly thinks, the Russian government hates you right now, and you're dependent on them to get you down at the end of your stint.

In terms of sanctions, I think one massive mistake was to block Russian civilian airlines. You have a nation of people who only get one Kremlin approved version of the story. It's summer, many of them would ordinarily go abroad for their holidays to countries where they'll likely hear a different version of events, except they're not allowed, so they're stuck with Putin's version only.

 

I see that chips are now off the menu at the fake McDonalds. They've run out of spuds.

I also hear that Putin is offering Russian prisoners amnesty and a payout - if they join up and fight in the Donbas for 6 months - the sting in the tail is that they must get back alive after this 6 months. They won't.

 

Cannon fodder comes to mind.

I didn't think mc Donald's chips were made of potatoes.
Any way, Ukraine must grow spuds, oh yeah I remember now, the place is full of unexploded cluster bombs and mostly flattened, what is the point of capturing a place like that.

 

I love those Fries (chips) along with a Burger & Latte.

 

The MoD must be wrong....

Ministry of Defence compares latest Russian kit to tractors as it slaps down Putin's claim he is just getting started.

Russia's army is said to be running out of decent kit and is deploying its reserve infantry in outdated personnel carriers

 

This is where I think we must be careful not to fall into the propaganda trap, it's working on both sides.

 

I agree.

There was something in the news recently where a shopping centre was hit by a missile. Personally I believe that's true. However it was hammed up a bit. There was a still frame from a CCTV system that showed the missile just before it struck. The missile was so clearly in focus that it was possible to identify the missile from the picture. That made me raise an eyebrow. That missile would have been moving at a hell of a speed. A high resolution, high speed camera would be able to get it if it happened to be pointing exactly the right way, at exactly the right zoom, at exactly the right moment. But ordinary CCTV?

 

Yeah you can't even see the face of someone in a cctv picture.
We also never hear that final body count of such things, or have I missed how many died in the shopping centre some days ago.
Last I heard was probably a thousand people in there.

 

Probably lies from both sides.

 

It's normal that civilians only get carefully selected info in times of war. As long as it's not blatant lies I don't see it as a problem. Remember the actual military aspect of war is just a fraction of the overall effort. In war, the goal is to manipulate the attitude of the people, whether that's to break the spirit to get them to capitulate, or win support for a particular course of action etc. Telling us everything is telling the enemy everything, as Putin's cronies can see our news just as we see theirs.

 

May not be getting blatant lies, but if we were directly involves we would be.
Probably collecting saucepans now to melt down and build a Typhoon fighter.

 

I bet you wear your baseball cap backwards as well.

 

An interesting article from The Jerusalem Post - published on Monday - tells what's really going on with sanctions - their aircraft industry is struggling for one:

Russia's economy hasn't tanked yet, but it is inevitable that it will

 

I'm not convinced anything is inevitable with Russia. I think they'll build other stronger trade links with the likes of China, India and lots of others that are more sympathetic to Russia and less sympathetic to the west.

Western organisations have a lot of work to do to try to prevent that happening. I think the military aspect of the war is the tiniest tip of the iceberg. Over the next decade or so I expect the world is going to change a lot.